Wednesday, January 26, 2011

When the retrospective history on Nick Punto is completed,
the subtitle will read “The man who couldn’t hit but boy could he field”.

Dating back to 2005, when he became steady presence with the
Twins or at least a common sight subbing in as a pinch runner or defensive
replacement, Punto has swung lethargic lumber. In that time he has hit
.248/.323/.325 with the third-lowest OPS (.647) among qualified players. Among
the more light-hitting infielders, he also struck out an inordinate amount of
the time (18.5%) rendering his fairly impressive speed useless when the ball
failed to meet the bat.

Where he was considered useful - at least in some managers’
opinion - was in his ability to lay down a bunt. In his 2,274 plate appearances
since 2005, Punto laid down 45 sacrifices, by far the most by a player who did
not spend any time in the National League, the more small-ball-oriented of the
two leagues. Likewise, the scrapper also managed to reach safely 45 times for
bunt hits. This was by far the most by any American League hitter in that time.

None of this nickel-and-dime stuff helped offset the reality
that he was providing little-to-no value to the club with a bat in his hand. In
fact, by Fangraphs.com’s account, he cost the Twins roughly 70 runs when
standing next to the plate:

Names

Batting
Runs Above Average (2005-10)

Cesar Izturis

-111.3

Pedro Feliz

-95.3

Adam Everett

-90.1

Jason Kendall

-89.0

Clint Barmes

-79.7

Willy Taveras

-71.8

Yuniesky Betancourt

-70.7

Omar Vizquel

-70.0

Nick Punto

-69.2

(via Fangraphs.com)

Of course, whatever damage Punto did with his bat, he almost
completely compensated for with his extraordinary defensive skills.

At short, a position he played at in 1,881 innings since ’05,
his 18.9 UZR/150 was the best in baseball, topping other glove lovers like Adam
Everett, Omar Vizquel and JJ Hardy. One position to his right at third, Punto
once again was considered the most elite defender there by the Ultimate Zone
Rating standards. His 20.0 UZR/150 in 2,098 innings led baseball and surpassed notables
such as Evan Longoria, Joe Crede and Ryan Zimmerman.

In fact, since 2005
when he first started making regular appearances in Ron Gardenhire’s lineups,
Punto has been 62.6 runs above average in the field according to Fangraphs.com:

Names

Fielding
Runs Above Average (2005-10)

Chase Utley

78.6

Carl Crawford

72.3

Franklin Gutierrez

69.7

Pedro Feliz

67.0

Andruw Jones

66.5

Ichiro Suzuki

62.8

Nick
Punto

62.6

(via Fangraphs.com)

In those five seasons, Punto was paid approximately $12.9
million but provided nearly 9.4 wins above replacement (WAR). By comparison,
the Twins paid the underrated
Michael Cuddyer $27.1 million in that same period but received less than
one more win over replacement from him (10.3). Clearly, the Twins were able to
make their often demurred investment in Punto worth their while.

Now 33 years old in 2011, it will be interesting to see if
the Cardinals will be able to extract the same amount of value from his defense
and his baserunning prowess that the Twins were able to while Punto was in his
mid-to-late 20s. Still, for
the small $750,000 chunk of change, St. Louis will receive a versatile,
above-average fielder.

About OtB

"Parker Hageman is the Michael Cuddyer of Twins bloggers -- not the flashiest guy out there, but a solid everyday player. Hageman produces spot-on analysis ... relying on in-depth stats and lots of charts. He takes a sober, performance-based view of players, letting others fall for a player's heart or his leadership skills in the clubhouse. Hageman is one of the four pillars holding up the Star Tribune's TwinsCentric blog."